Freedom
by Existential Insanity
Summary: Keitaro wants out.  And this is how he does it.


A/N: I think Keitaro gets backed into a corner alot, and like any caged animal, he fights back. Leave a review.

Love Hina - One Shot - Freedom

He looked. For so long he looked. He looked for her. All so he could be let out of this cursed promise.

Woe! Woe to Keitaro. She could not be found. Maybe she was already there. At Tokyo University. Maybe she was Narusegawa, or Otohime.

It didn't matter. He wanted out.

The pain and suffering he went through. His immeadiate family so close to disowning him. His matriarch damning him to manage the dorm, something he never wanted. His 'friends' always teasing and making fun of him. His tenants, though, were the bane of banes in his existence.

Nothing he could do would be right. He even slept wrong according to Naru. Sleeping on the stomach is only when one fears the Raiju, and Keitaro was grown, she would always tell him. Even things he could not be faulted for, like Aoyoma Motoko barging into his room whilst he was changing was his fault.

Konno Mitsune, oft refered to as Kitsune, would blantantly flirt with him or pull him into situations he obviously fought against, in full veiw, were his fault.

Suu kicked him in the head. His fault.

Shinobu got embarrassed when he praised her. His fault.

Sarah pulled the chair out from underneath him and his wallet chain scratched the floor. His fault.

So he searched for clues. In conversations with Naru and Mutsumi. He was ninety-nine percent sure it was one of them. In the diaries of the two he could get his hands on. In tidbits of information his grandmother would leave in cryptic clues.

He couldn't take it anymore. He needed OUT! If he could break this promise, and it wouldn't hang over his head, he could go to arts school like he had wanted to in middle and high school. He could crawl back to his parents long enough to get into one of the ones in Tokyo.

If Keitaro could break the first promise to get into Tokyo U he could break the second, and escape this hell. Leave it to Kanako, for now. He'd likely fufill his promise to her. After all no other woman would want him, and he could rest painting and writing the rest of his days, only doing the minimum to help manage the dorm/inn.

Soon he was one hundred percent sure, it was one of the two girls. The inn's records showed them both as the only little girls there that summer.

He sat them both down one day. He had something important to tell them.

"What do you want, Keitaro? Why are we here?" Naru snarled at him. Always so violent that one.

"Ara, Kei-kun, Why indeed?" Mutsumi asked him in her casual, gentle, rather ditzy way.

He took a breath to steel his nerves.

"One of you is my promise girl. I know that to be a fact. The records show you two were the only ones of the proper age and here at the proper time as children. I am here to apologize to you. I am not going to fufill the promise."

His world exploded in pain as he heard the first sob from Mutsumi. Naru was screaming at him. He didn't care. He was almost FREE!

When Keitaro had survived his beating he dragged his broken, bleeding self to the common room where he heard Naru alternate between screaming about his failings and comforting Mutsumi. He heard the other girls voices as well. He smiled through bloddy teeth.

Silence reigned when he pulled himself into the room. The damage on him was quite severe.

"I am," he said slowly, to accomodate a broken rib, "here to apologize," blood dribbled onto his chin and the room tensed, "to you all. I am not going to fulfill my promise of getting into Tokyo U."

Again his world exploded in pain. Naru resumed her beating of him and Motoko joined in. Mitsune, for once since he met her, tried to do something positive for him and yelled at the girls to stop, couldn't they see he was severely hurt.

The young girls all huddled together and cried along with Mutsimi who began anew.

When he was finally launched, he didn't go anywhere as far usual. He landed at the feet of Haruka, who stood outside her teashop.

Her cigarette dropped from her mouth. Never had she seen so much damage caused to one person without them dying. He was a boneless pile of flesh. Blood poured from him as he quivered and twitched.

She immeadiately phoned for an ambulance to the clinic in town. Both which knew the drill and were discreet. Keitaro had never wanted to press charges.

Haruka was chilled to the bone, though, when she returned. Before finally sucumbing to the peace of oblivion, Keitaro wheezed out two words.

"I'm FREE!"

XXXXX

After Keitaro awoke he made phone call after phone call. He called Haruka to collect his things from the dorm. He called his parents to beg their forgivness and ask for a job at the candy shop until he could get accepted into a school he actually wanted to go to. He called his Hinata-obaa-sama and told her that he was no longer manager of Hinata Dorms, he resigned.

His things were recovered successfully. It had taken Haruka longer than expected, but Keitaro did not ask why.

His parents did welcome him back under the provision he get into a college within the year.

Hinata-obaa-sama, however, refused time and time again to accept his resignation. So he had to come up with a plan.

Hinata-obaa-sama did not expect it when she was faxed a note and a marriage certificate. Keitaro asked his parents if Kanako was really adopted. When he found that she was he called her. Two days later, Kanako landed at the airport and dragged a government offical and a few witnesses to Keitaro's bedside. Paperwork in hand. Their marriage was approved and they were wed.

The note read:

I'm free. I will not let you take that from me.

Hinata-obaa-sama knew when she was defeated. He played the game very well when something he wanted was for up for grabs.

Keitaro graduated top of his class at his school, and spend the rest of his days writing and illustrating stories; maintaining the now inn; and raising his many children.

Many years later when Hinata was on her deathbed she asked for him. He appeared like any good grandchild.

She asked: "Why?"

And he answered: "Beacuse I wanted to be free. And I am. I'm free."


End file.
